Molded flexible plastic packing container



Nov. 19, 1963 1 c. soNKA ETAI.

MOLDED FLEXIBLE PLASTIC PACKING CONTAINER Filed Oct. 1l, 1961 United States Patent O 3,111,153 MLDED FLEXIBLE PLASTiC PACKING CUNTAINER Lorraine C. Sonka and Robert T. Sanita, both of Box 396, RR. 1, Warrenville, ill. Fried Oct. 11, 1961, Ser. No. 144,399 1 Claim. (C1. 15G-48) This invention relates to a flexible plastic molded packing container having a detachable cover in sealing relation. More in particular this invention relates to a suspendable molded container having a removable cover with removable suspension supports pivotally connected thereto.

In the beverage industry it is customary to provide convenient means for the customer 4to carry small quantitties from the merchant dispensers. Particularly in the beer industry it is customary to provide paper cartons adapted to hold securely six l2 ounce cans of beer, sometimes referred to as export beer. These cartons are made of heavy paper or cardboard and must be assembled prior to loading with iilled and sealed cans. Further these cartons are expendable in that when the export beer cans have been removed the packing cartons are of no further use and thus disposed of by the customer as refuse. Since 4the paper cartons are generally printed in multi-colored advertising the overall cost for a single-use carton is a major expense item to the brewery and of course such cost must be contained within the price to the customer. The present invention overcomes these difculties by providing a molded plastic receptacle of a flexible type with transparent or nearly transparent sides which transmits the advertising material on the cans therethrough. Accordingly it is a prime object of this invention to provide a molded flexible plastic container having a removably sealed cover.

A further impor-tant object of this invention is to provide a container according to the preceding object having a pivotal and removable suspension means.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a transparent or translucent packing container according to the preceding objects adapted to enclose a manufacturers product wherein the advertising on said product is visible through the container.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a packing receptacle of low cost and re-usable for the same purpose or other purpose.

These and other important and desirable objects will become apparent from the ensuing description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, the appended claim and the annexed drawings wherein:

FlGURE l is a front View, partly broken away, illustrating the receptacle with cover of the present invention packed with six cans of product;

`FIGURE 2 is an end view of FIGURE l showing details not apparent in FIGURE 1;

FGURE 3 is a plan view of the receptacle of FGURE l illustrating the packing arrangement of the manufacturers canned product therein;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged sectional view, partly broken away, taken on line 4 4 of FIGURE 3 showing the construction of the seal for the cover of the receptacle;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged perspective view, partly broken away, showing the construction of the pivotal connection between one end of a suspender and the receptacle in disassembled form; and

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged sectional view, partly broken away, showing one end of a suspender pivotally connected to the receptacle in assembled form.

With continued reference to the drawings the numeral 1t) indicates generally the packing container of this invention having a detachable cover 11. The container 10 is provided with a vertical wall 12 with arcuate cornices 13 having radii consistent with the radius of each of the cans 14. The cans 14 are merely indicative of the cylindrical shaped construction of a manuiacturers product such as export beer cans. The wall 12 is secured to a plastic base plate 15, forming a receptacle having a contour appropriate to the volume requirements of the group of cans 14 as shown. The plate 15 is preferably of thicker gauge construction than the wall 12 to prevent sagging due to the weight of the loaded cans 14. The wall 12 secured to the base 15 may conveniently be made by a single-stage injection molding operation employing conventional thermoplastic materials such as polyethylene, plasticized cellulose acetate or cellulose acetate-butyrate, polymethylmethacrylate or other poly-acrylates, and polystyrene for examples, all of which are colorless and transparent or semi-transparent.

Referring now to FIGURE 4 the cover 11 is also molded with a similar type plastic material and is provided with a downwardly extending peripheral portion flange or lip 16 having an inner groove or recess 17. Molded into the upper edge portion of the wall 12 is a flange projection or rib 13 adapted for reception into the groove 17 in sealing relation. rihus due to the il-exibility of the plastic construction the cover 11 and wall 12 can be yeasily deilected by manual pressure applied for assembling the cover 11 to the upper edge of the wall 12 in sealing relation. In a similar manner but in reverse operation the cover 11 can be easily detached. Thus the manufacturer places the loaded cans 14. in the receptacle 10 and thereafter installs the cover `11 and the customer removes the cover 11 to withdraw the cans 14. These operations obviously may be repeated as often as desired.

Now -in order to carry the receptacle 11 conveniently one or more ilexible plastic Suspenders 19' are provided, two of which are shown in the drawings. Each of the Suspenders 19 straddles the sides of the receptacle, and have their end portions pivotally connected to the wall 12. Each of the Suspenders 19 should be of suicient length to permit it to retract downwardly along the side of the receptacle 11i to the position 19l as illustrated in FIGURE l. This arrangement facilitates installing and removing the cover 11 as previously explained.

The pivotal connection between the end of a suspender 19 and the wall 12 may conveniently be in the form of a snapbn device generally indicated at '20. The snapon device 2i? comprises an annular re-inforcing disc 21 (FIGURES 5 and 6) having an outwardly extending pin 22 secured to an expanded port-ion or enlargement such as sphere 23. The sphere 23, pin 2z and disc 2.1 conveniently may be molded integrally with the wall or alternatively the disc 21 with pin 22 and sphere 23 may be cemented or heat sealed to the wall 12.

Adjacent the ends of each suspender-19 is an aperture 24 having a diameter for sliding lit to the pin 22 which diameter is appreciably smaller than the diameter of the sphere 23. On the suspender 19 extending to the periphery of the aperture 24 is `a notch or slit 25 which permits the aperture Z4 to be expanded so that it can easily be slipped over the sphere 23 and thereafter locks to the pin Z2 as best shown in FIGURE 6. Thus the suspender 19 is secured pivotally to the pin 22. Obviously by reverse operation the suspender 19 may be removed from the pin 22.

For convenience and minimizing space requirements for shipping quantities of empty receptacles 10 the wall 12 may be slightly tapered inwardly in the downward direction, thereby having the base 15 somewhat smaller than the cover 11. This facilitates the retention of one receptacle within another in telescopic relation thus materially reducing the shipping space requirements for empty containers.

In original use the empty receptacles 10, with covers 11 removed, are charged or loaded with a predetermined number of filled cans of a manufacturers product such as, for the illustrated example shown in the drawings, six 12 ounce cans of` beer. The printed advertizing material on the outer surfaces of the cans Iis then visible to the eye through the Wall l2 of each receptacle 101. The covers y1-1 are then installed, one on each receptacle 10 as above described. The containers ltlcharged with the manufacturers product are then ready for shipment to the dispensing merchants and the consumer public in the same manner heretofore employed. No further advertizing material need be applied to the receptacles 10 for the reasons above explained.

The customer needs only to detach the cover 11 from the receptacle 10, as previously described, in order to extract the filled cans therefrom. The emptied receptacle may then be returned to the brewer for re-use in the same manner or alternatively the customer may employ it for other purposes such as a lunch receptacle or as a container for freezing vegetables or fruits and the like.

Having -thus described a preferred embodiment of the invention it can now be seen that the objects of the invention have been fully achieved and it must be understood that changes and modifications may be made which do not depart from the spirit of the invention nor from the scope thereof as defined in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A transparent suspendable and re-usable molded plastic container for packing cylindrically shaped filled cans comprising, in combination,

((1)1 a flexible. molded plastic receptacle having a flat horizontal base plate and a vertical wall secured peripherally about said base plate,

(b) said base plate being of appreciably thicker construction than said wall to prevent substantial tlexure thereof when supporting said filled cans,

(c) an outwardly extending first flange disposed about A. the outer periphery of said wall adjacent the upper end thereof,

(d) said first ange being substantially rectangular in cross-section,

(e) a flexible detachable cover having a downwardly extending second -liange disposed about the periphery thereof,

(f) said cover having a groove of substantially rectangular cross-section disposed on the inner side of said second -liange positioned for receiving said first iiange of said receptacle in sealed lock-ing relation,

(g) at least one pair of pins secured to and extending outwardly from said wall in opposed relation, said pins being positioned substantially below the top of said wall,

(h) each of said pins having an expanded spherically shaped portion disposed on the outer end thereof, (i) and a removable flexible elongated plastic suspender element having one end thereof pivotally connected to one of said pins and the other end pivotally connected to the other of said pins,

(j) said suspendder being of sufficient length to rotate about said pins to a position below said cover whereby said container may be suspended thereby and alternately rotated to attach and detach said cover for packing and unpacking said container 'with said lled cans.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 897,472Y Marx sept. 1, 1908 2,892,540 Tupper lune 30, 1959 2,899,103 Ebert Aug. l1, 1959 2,984,382 Florsheim May 16, 1961 3,032,230 Gerber May 1, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 689,475 Great Britain Mar. 25, 1953 

